Christmas Eve

We spent Christmas Eve at the Hilton's house. Grandma Heidi made her traditional Christmas dinner which was delicious. Grandpa Steve led us in a Christmas devotional- we all took turns reading the Christmas story from the scriptures and sang Christmas hymns while he played the guitar. The kids were very excited to have uncle Dave and Rob home from school. While we were there a special visitor paid the Hilton's a visit...

Carter was thrilled to see Santa. When asked if he had been a good boy this year, he quickly sold out his little sister, telling Santa that she is sometimes naughty.

Taylor was terrified of Santa and went screaming into Drew's arms when she saw him. She warmed up a little after he gave her a candy cane but was very leery of him and wouldn't Drew put her down. Taylor still insisted however that "hanta" (Santa) was going to spend the night at our house- "downhairs" (downstairs). And that he was bringing his own "blankie" and "moo" (stuffed animal) to sleep with.

When we got home we all got our jammies on and headed downstairs to the Christmas tree. This year we started a new tradition. We turned off all of the lights except for the tree lights, turned on the fire place, and read Christmas stories while munching on cookies and egg nog. Before heading off to bed, we left the traditional plate of treats and cup of egg nog for Santa, as well as a bowl of carrots for Rudolph. Surprisingly- both Tay and Carter went right to bed this year!